In such terms you venture to contrast our respective methods. You want the public to believe that I make the “Textus Receptus” “a standard from which there shall be no appeal,”—entertain “the notion that it is little else than sacrilege to impugn the tradition of the last 300 years,”[916]—and so forth;—while you and your colleagues act upon the conviction that the Truth is rather to be sought “in the consentient testimony of the most ancient Authorities.” I proceed to show you, by appealing to an actual instance, that neither of these statements is correct.
(a) And first, permit me to speak for myself. Finding that you challenge the Received reading of S. Luke ii. 14, (“good will towards men”);—and that, (on the authority of 4 Greek Codices [א a b d], all Latin documents, and the Gothic Version,) you contend that “peace among men in whom he is well pleased” ought to be read, instead;—I make my appeal unreservedly to Antiquity.[917] I request the Ancients to adjudicate between you and me by favouring us with their verdict. Accordingly, I find as follows:
That, in the IInd century,—the Syriac Versions and Irenæus support the Received Text:
That, in the IIIrd century,—the Coptic Version,—Origen in 3 places, and—the Apostolical Constitutions in 2, do the same:
That, in the IVth century, (to which century, you are invited to remember, codices b and א belong,)—Eusebius,—Aphraates the Persian,—Titus of Bostra,—each in 2 places:—Didymus in 3:—Gregory of Nazianzus,—Cyril of Jer.,—Epiphanius 2—and Gregory of Nyssa—4 times: Ephraem Syr.,—Philo bp. of Carpasus,—Chrysostom 9 times,—and an unknown Antiochian contemporary of his:—these eleven, I once more find, are every one against you:
That, in the Vth century,—besides the Armenian Version, Cyril of Alex. in 14 places:—Theodoret in 4:—Theodotus of Ancyra in 5:—Proclus:—Paulus of Emesa:—the Eastern bishops of Ephesus collectively, a.d. 431;—and Basil of Seleucia:—these contemporaries of cod. a I find are all eight against you:
That, in the VIth century,—besides the Georgian—and Æthiopic Versions,—Cosmas, 5 times:—Anastasius Sinait. and Eulogius, (contemporaries of cod. d,) are all three with the Traditional Text:
That, in the VIIth and VIIIth centuries,—Andreas of Crete, 2:—pope Martinus at the Lat. Council:—Cosmas, bp. of Maiume near Gaza,—and his pupil John Damascene;—together with Germanus, abp. of Constantinople:—are again all five with the Traditional Text.
To these 35, must be added 18 other ancient authorities with which the reader has been already made acquainted (viz. at pp. 44-5): all of which bear the self-same evidence.
Thus I have enumerated fifty-three ancient Greek authorities,—of which sixteen belong to the IInd, IIIrd, and IVth centuries: and thirty-seven to the Vth, VIth, VIIth, and VIIIth.